a tall plant with a wooden trunk, branches, and leaves
The children played under the big oak tree in the park.
In autumn, the leaves of this maple tree turn bright red.
✦ Old English “trēo, trēow” meaning “tree, wood”, of Germanic origin.
a diagram or computer data structure that begins at a single point and branches out to show hierarchy or relationships
The file manager displays the folders in a tree on the left side of the screen.
An XML document can be represented as a tree of elements.
✦ Metaphorically extended from the branching shape of a living tree to diagrams and data structures in the mid-20th century.
to chase or force a person or animal up into a tree so that they cannot escape
The dogs treed a raccoon behind the farmhouse.
If you keep running, the bear might tree you.
✦ 19th-century American usage, from the idea of driving an animal up a tree during a hunt.
the evergreen tropical tree that produces grapefruit fruit.
Our backyard grapefruit tree is bearing fruit.
The grapefruit tree needs pruning in spring.
✦ The grapefruit tree is a hybrid originating in Barbados, probably from sweet orange and pomelo or shaddock.
